Northern Maine tractor club rolling old iron into Presque Isle

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — More than 200 antique and classic farm tractors and engines from as far away as Ohio and Prince Edward Island will be in northern Maine this weekend as part of the three-day Tired Iron Round-Up June 28-30 at the Northern Maine Fairgrounds.

“Each year, the [association] selects a branch member to host a regional tractor show,” according to the northern Maine group’s website. “The Northern Maine Antique Tractor Club is very proud and honored to be [the] host for the 2013 show.”

The gates open at 7 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a daily schedule including meals, displays, demonstrations, a craft fair and musical performances.

Throughout it all, old iron takes center stage.

“This show fits with what our club does,” said Cheryl Boulier, northern Maine tractor club secretary. “Our mission is to promote the area’s agricultural heritage [and] showing the tractors that did the work so people can see the equipment used years ago by past generations.”

Visitors also will get to compare those machines of years’ past with modern-day farming equipment in special side-by-side displays of old and new tractors and machinery.

“Our biggest goal for this is [that] when people come, that they feel they have stepped back in time,” Boulier said. “There are memories with all that old equipment.”

The region covers New England and the east out to Ohio and includes parts of Atlantic Canada.

“We have people coming down from Prince Edward Island with their small gas-powered engines,” Boulier said. “They will be demonstrating them and how they were used to power things like old cider presses.”

Many of the displays and events can take place indoors on the fairgrounds, Boulier said, so any rain will not stop the action of the family-oriented event.

Daily admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for children 13-17 and free for children under 12.

Complete information and schedules are available at the Northern Maine Antique Tractor club’s website at nmatc.org/.